A great story of blood-curdling revenge. "The Cask of Amontillado" gives a student not only a chance to spend some time with one of the really scary psychopaths of literatura, but also a great deal of opportunity to see the master of irony at work. Virtually everything in this story is ironic; by the end a reader hardly knows what to think any more.
Irony, we recall, refers to that use of language in which there is some kind of discrepancy. If the discrepancy is between what is said and what is meant, we call that verbal irony; if it is between what the reader expects will happen and what does actually happen, we call that irony of situation; and if it is between what the reader known is true and what the character in the story believes is true, we have dramatic irony. All three occur in this case is the chief cause of the reader's action, which will probably be some combination of horror and delight--horror over the evil behavior of the main character, and delight in the presentation of the story.
Like most nineteenth century literature, the story presents a few problems in vocabulary. Before reading the story, a class might examine the unfamiliar words and try to predict what sort of environment or situation the story might concern. A standard technique is to indicate which words the students already know, which they think they know, what clues they find toward a word's meaning, and what the word actually means. It is convenient to gather all of this into a chart for later review.
Word
I know it means
I think it menas
Word clues
Actual meaning
Amontillado
precluded
impunity
"puni" suggests
punishment
unredressed
wont
accosted
suffered
absconded
flambeaux
catacombs
rheum
rampant
fancy (noun)
puncheons
gesticulation
recoiling
fettered
implore
niche
rapier
aperture
Once the words have been settled on and the class has exercised some imagination about what the story might concern, it is time to read. Poe deserves to be read aloud, and it is the teacher's choice shether to have students read it or to use a recording. Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price made excellent recording of Poe's stories a long time ago. If they are still available, they are a real treat.
If the class reads the story themselves, they should pause after a few paragraphs to be sure that the content is clear enough. The plot line is quite simple. Montresor lures Fortunato into the tunnels below his Venetian estate ostensibly to check the quality of some wine. There he walls Fortunato up alive as revenge for some unnamed insult Fortunato had committed some time before. Obviously it is not the plot that makes the story great, but the language.
Reading and Inquiry:
As they are reading, the students should pause when they are ready to answer these questions.
1. What is the Montresor coat of arms? Draw it.
Nemo me impune lacessit
What does the motto mean? What is the source of the image of a human heel crushing a snake's head?
2. What is the joke concerning the mason? What sign does Fortunato give that he is a mason? What sign does Montresor give?
3. When Montresor shows his sign, Fortunato responds by "recoiling a few paces." What does this have to do with the motto?
4. Fortunato claims he needn't worry about his bronchial condition--he will not die of a cough. Montresor says, "True, true." What is the effect of this little exchange?
5. When Fortunato realizes what Montresor is doing, he yells, "For the love of God, Montresor!" and Montresor answers. "Yes, for the love of God.: What God does Montresor love? What has God said on the subject of revenge?
6. Montresor says that nothing has disurbed the pile of bones in front of Forunato's crypt for fifty years. Can you imagine why he is telling the story at this time in his life? (Here's a clue: How old do you suppose Montresor is in the story? How old is he when he tells the story?)
7. He ends by saying "In pace requiescat, " may he rest in peace. To whom does this statement apply? To whom else?
Story Board:
Create a story board that shows Montresor and Fortunato at the various places mentioned in the text as they journey from the streets of the carnival to the end of the tunnel. For each scene select a phrase from the story that you feel is particularly successful at describing that location or indicating an important irony in the plot.
Further inquiry:
After reading the entire story, it is worth looking back at the beginning to see how cleverly Poe establishes the conditions under which Montresor achieves his goal. Here is the first paragraph.
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know thenature of my sould, will not suppose, however, that I fave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled--but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea or risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
We are told immediately that Montressor feels he has endured many injuries from Fortunato, but we are not told what they are. They are not physical injuries, but emotional ones. The offense that Montressor cannot tolerate, though, is an insult. Montresor speaks to the reader directly and gives the reader a chance to make a judgement. "You, who so well know the nature of my soul..." he says, and yet what do we know of the nature of his soul? So far we have had only one sentence. The effect of this remark is womewhat ironic. He is basing his argument on our knowledge, but we have no knowledge. How does that make us evaluate him? the only clue is that he has already borne a thousand injuries (either liteally or hyperbolically), but he cannot stand an insult. Perhaps that tells us what kind of person he is. His calculating mind is revealed when he tells us that there is no question that he will get revenge, but that he will rake no riskin doing so. Since the students have already read the story, they know what steps he takes to prclude risk: He arranges for his servants to be out of the hourse, he appeals to Fortunato's vanity, he gets him drunk, he prepares the cement and chains ahead of time. He insists, he says, on punishing with impunity, and that he manages to achieve. We know that Fortunato's remains have not been disturbed for half a century; no one knows what Montresor has done. He establishes two conditions for his revenge. In addition to avoiding punishment himself, he must make Gortunato feel as he felt when the insult was delivered.
Analysis of language:
With this background established, Montresor begins to execute his plan, and we readers can observe the irony of his story. Here are some phrases that the students will see are ironic; after locating a gew together, the should spend some time finding othes independently. Whether or not they indicate correctly which of the three kinds is not very important. Sometimes the distinction is difficult to draw becuase an expression may combine elements of more than one kind of irony. The speaker may mean something other than what he actually says and thereby create knowledge in the reader's mind that a character does not have. The important thing is to recognize that the language is ironic. I continued as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile NOW was at the thought of his immolation. This is dramatic irony, since the reader knows that Montresor is deceiving Fortunato , but Fortunato does not. I was so pleased to see him... This is verbal irony because Montresor actually hates Fortunato, and doubly ironic because he is indeed pleased to have a chance to get his revenge.
"My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,..." This is verbal irony because we know that Fortunato, in spite of his ironic name, is anything but luckily met, or perhaps dramatic irony because the reader knows that Montresor has evil plans for Fortunato, but Fortunato does not know about them.
"My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature." Montresor does not really think Fortunato is his friend, and he does not think Fortunato has a good nature. In addition, imposing on Fortunato's good nature is exactly what Montresor is doing.
And so on. There are many, many examples of irony, and the student will see that a great deal of the story is told to us in this fashion. They should locate and explain perhaps another half dozen examples of irony in the story.
Further inquiry:
The students should be given a chance to consider the effect of the allusion in mid-story, and its contribution to the story as a whole. Montresor says that his had been "a great numerous family." Fortunato asks him to remind him about his family's coat of arms and their motto. The picture on the coat of arms is a human foot crushing the head of a serpent while the serpent embeds its fangs into the foot's heel. The Latin motto means " No one hurts me with impunity," We see immediately that Montresor is living out his family's motto. Fortunato has hurt him and he is not going to escape punishment.
The allusion is to the Bible, where God distributes punishments to the three characters involved in the Garden of Eden story. For their disobedience Adam and Eve are punished severely. Eve, and therefore all women, will bear their children in great pain. Adam will have to wrok hard for his living. They are both banished from Eden. The serpent, for its role in the episode, will crawl in the dust and will always be a target of mankind's disgust and hatred; hmans will always be trying to kill the snakes and the snakes will protect themselves by biting at the humans. The Montresor coat of arms depicts the relationship betweeen mand and snake: the man is killing the snake, but the snake, before it dies, poisons the man. No one hurts me, man or snake, with impunity.
The coat of arms and motto are ironic in that while each kills the other, neither does so with impunity, and so by application we should expect that if Montresor, whether the human or the snake in this story, succeeds in getting his revenge, Fortunato will play the other role, human or snake, and destroy Montresor as well. Thus the ambiguity, which is a kind of irony, in the final line: May he rest in peace. Montresor had thought that by killing Fortunato he would be putting an end to his own suffering, and doing so according to his own rules that required him to escape punishment and to make Fortunato feel as he had felt whem Fortunato had insulted him. But the irony is that Montresor has suffered for these fifty years, and the horror that he visited upon Fortunato has not left his consciousness. The plea for eternal rest can just as likely refer to his own as to Fortunato's.
Another irony is apparent in Fortunato's horrified outburst "For the love of God, Montresor!" And Montresor answers "Yes, for the love God." That's why I doing this, he says, out of love for my god, which is the god of revenge. And yet, someone who recognizes the allusion to the Garden of Eden will also know that throughout the Old Testament, God indicates that the province of revenge is his. Even the ancient Greeks understood that when humans undertook to play the role of the gods, they suffered horrible tragedies. Poe's story is no different.
Irony, we recall, refers to that use of language in which there is some kind of discrepancy. If the discrepancy is between what is said and what is meant, we call that verbal irony; if it is between what the reader expects will happen and what does actually happen, we call that irony of situation; and if it is between what the reader known is true and what the character in the story believes is true, we have dramatic irony. All three occur in this case is the chief cause of the reader's action, which will probably be some combination of horror and delight--horror over the evil behavior of the main character, and delight in the presentation of the story.
Like most nineteenth century literature, the story presents a few problems in vocabulary. Before reading the story, a class might examine the unfamiliar words and try to predict what sort of environment or situation the story might concern. A standard technique is to indicate which words the students already know, which they think they know, what clues they find toward a word's meaning, and what the word actually means. It is convenient to gather all of this into a chart for later review.
punishment
If the class reads the story themselves, they should pause after a few paragraphs to be sure that the content is clear enough. The plot line is quite simple. Montresor lures Fortunato into the tunnels below his Venetian estate ostensibly to check the quality of some wine. There he walls Fortunato up alive as revenge for some unnamed insult Fortunato had committed some time before. Obviously it is not the plot that makes the story great, but the language.
Reading and Inquiry:
As they are reading, the students should pause when they are ready to answer these questions.
1. What is the Montresor coat of arms? Draw it.
What does the motto mean? What is the source of the image of a human heel crushing a snake's head?
2. What is the joke concerning the mason? What sign does Fortunato give that he is a mason? What sign does Montresor give?
3. When Montresor shows his sign, Fortunato responds by "recoiling a few paces." What does this have to do with the motto?
4. Fortunato claims he needn't worry about his bronchial condition--he will not die of a cough. Montresor says, "True, true." What is the effect of this little exchange?
5. When Fortunato realizes what Montresor is doing, he yells, "For the love of God, Montresor!" and Montresor answers. "Yes, for the love of God.: What God does Montresor love? What has God said on the subject of revenge?
6. Montresor says that nothing has disurbed the pile of bones in front of Forunato's crypt for fifty years. Can you imagine why he is telling the story at this time in his life? (Here's a clue: How old do you suppose Montresor is in the story? How old is he when he tells the story?)
7. He ends by saying "In pace requiescat, " may he rest in peace. To whom does this statement apply? To whom else?
Story Board:
Create a story board that shows Montresor and Fortunato at the various places mentioned in the text as they journey from the streets of the carnival to the end of the tunnel. For each scene select a phrase from the story that you feel is particularly successful at describing that location or indicating an important irony in the plot.
Further inquiry:
After reading the entire story, it is worth looking back at the beginning to see how cleverly Poe establishes the conditions under which Montresor achieves his goal. Here is the first paragraph.
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know thenature of my sould, will not suppose, however, that I fave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled--but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea or risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
We are told immediately that Montressor feels he has endured many injuries from Fortunato, but we are not told what they are. They are not physical injuries, but emotional ones. The offense that Montressor cannot tolerate, though, is an insult. Montresor speaks to the reader directly and gives the reader a chance to make a judgement. "You, who so well know the nature of my soul..." he says, and yet what do we know of the nature of his soul? So far we have had only one sentence. The effect of this remark is womewhat ironic. He is basing his argument on our knowledge, but we have no knowledge. How does that make us evaluate him? the only clue is that he has already borne a thousand injuries (either liteally or hyperbolically), but he cannot stand an insult. Perhaps that tells us what kind of person he is. His calculating mind is revealed when he tells us that there is no question that he will get revenge, but that he will rake no riskin doing so. Since the students have already read the story, they know what steps he takes to prclude risk: He arranges for his servants to be out of the hourse, he appeals to Fortunato's vanity, he gets him drunk, he prepares the cement and chains ahead of time. He insists, he says, on punishing with impunity, and that he manages to achieve. We know that Fortunato's remains have not been disturbed for half a century; no one knows what Montresor has done. He establishes two conditions for his revenge. In addition to avoiding punishment himself, he must make Gortunato feel as he felt when the insult was delivered.
Analysis of language:
With this background established, Montresor begins to execute his plan, and we readers can observe the irony of his story. Here are some phrases that the students will see are ironic; after locating a gew together, the should spend some time finding othes independently. Whether or not they indicate correctly which of the three kinds is not very important. Sometimes the distinction is difficult to draw becuase an expression may combine elements of more than one kind of irony. The speaker may mean something other than what he actually says and thereby create knowledge in the reader's mind that a character does not have. The important thing is to recognize that the language is ironic.
I continued as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile NOW was at the thought of his immolation. This is dramatic irony, since the reader knows that Montresor is deceiving Fortunato , but Fortunato does not.
I was so pleased to see him... This is verbal irony because Montresor actually hates Fortunato, and doubly ironic because he is indeed pleased to have a chance to get his revenge.
"My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met,..." This is verbal irony because we know that Fortunato, in spite of his ironic name, is anything but luckily met, or perhaps dramatic irony because the reader knows that Montresor has evil plans for Fortunato, but Fortunato does not know about them.
"My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature." Montresor does not really think Fortunato is his friend, and he does not think Fortunato has a good nature. In addition, imposing on Fortunato's good nature is exactly what Montresor is doing.
And so on. There are many, many examples of irony, and the student will see that a great deal of the story is told to us in this fashion. They should locate and explain perhaps another half dozen examples of irony in the story.
Further inquiry:
The students should be given a chance to consider the effect of the allusion in mid-story, and its contribution to the story as a whole. Montresor says that his had been "a great numerous family." Fortunato asks him to remind him about his family's coat of arms and their motto. The picture on the coat of arms is a human foot crushing the head of a serpent while the serpent embeds its fangs into the foot's heel. The Latin motto means " No one hurts me with impunity," We see immediately that Montresor is living out his family's motto. Fortunato has hurt him and he is not going to escape punishment.
The allusion is to the Bible, where God distributes punishments to the three characters involved in the Garden of Eden story. For their disobedience Adam and Eve are punished severely. Eve, and therefore all women, will bear their children in great pain. Adam will have to wrok hard for his living. They are both banished from Eden. The serpent, for its role in the episode, will crawl in the dust and will always be a target of mankind's disgust and hatred; hmans will always be trying to kill the snakes and the snakes will protect themselves by biting at the humans. The Montresor coat of arms depicts the relationship betweeen mand and snake: the man is killing the snake, but the snake, before it dies, poisons the man. No one hurts me, man or snake, with impunity.
The coat of arms and motto are ironic in that while each kills the other, neither does so with impunity, and so by application we should expect that if Montresor, whether the human or the snake in this story, succeeds in getting his revenge, Fortunato will play the other role, human or snake, and destroy Montresor as well. Thus the ambiguity, which is a kind of irony, in the final line: May he rest in peace. Montresor had thought that by killing Fortunato he would be putting an end to his own suffering, and doing so according to his own rules that required him to escape punishment and to make Fortunato feel as he had felt whem Fortunato had insulted him. But the irony is that Montresor has suffered for these fifty years, and the horror that he visited upon Fortunato has not left his consciousness. The plea for eternal rest can just as likely refer to his own as to Fortunato's.
Another irony is apparent in Fortunato's horrified outburst "For the love of God, Montresor!" And Montresor answers "Yes, for the love God." That's why I doing this, he says, out of love for my god, which is the god of revenge. And yet, someone who recognizes the allusion to the Garden of Eden will also know that throughout the Old Testament, God indicates that the province of revenge is his. Even the ancient Greeks understood that when humans undertook to play the role of the gods, they suffered horrible tragedies. Poe's story is no different.